The cruise ship was the Volendam. Yes, I have cruised before.The name of the ships were-Orama 1926-Fairstar 1984-Crown Monarch 1991 Canberra 1997-Queen Mary2 2009. I absolutely love cruising,and never get bored, or sea sick.Next cruise? Vancouver-Alaska on the Volendam.

You've been cruising a long time! You've certainly seen cruising change over the years.

Have you been to Alaska before? It's an incredible destination, filled with beautiful vistas, lots of wildlife, and of course the amazing glaciers. Bring warm clothing you can layer so you can watch the scenery from an outdoor vantage point.

I did a partial transit of the canal several years ago. The ship no longer exists; I think it was Admiral Line's Azure Seas, if memory serves (which it doesn't usually). We went through the first 3 or 4 locks to Gatun Lake, and then turned around and went back out the same way.

We had seen a film on the building of the Canal a day before getting there, and then seeing it in person was fascinating. We could practically touch the locks on each side, and the ship seemed much smaller than the panamax ships today. Some day I'll do a full transit and end up in Acapulco.

Australia and New Zealand are definites on my list, too. How long a cruise was that? From where did it sail?

My husband and I also cruise with the volendam first time. We had wonderful cruises to south america, antarctic, asia, caribic and transatlantic, also to spitzbergen and norway, but with always with european lines. This is our first cruise with an american line, we are therefore very interesting to hear something about the volendam. we booked sydney-vancouver from 17th april till 14th may 2010. before we have a short trip to ayers rocks and alice springs and at the end some days in vancouver. We have a guarntee cabin cat.ff, perhaps you can tell me if this cabins have windows. Is it possible to get a table for two in the dining room, we have second seating? how are the shore excursions booked on the ship, is it organized well? we already have booked a flight over hilo hawaii by our agency. how is the food on the volendam? sorry for my bad english, hope you understand.